by Kirby Lindsay Laney, posted 23 February 2016
It’s time once again for Quiz Night For Day, a fundraising (and community building) event held at (and catered by) Pecado Bueno. On Tuesday, March 1st, those who like to test their trivia knowledge can bring their team of four to the popular eatery, and have a fun among friends answering questions posed by Trivia Master (and organizer) Carol Magallanes, knowing they’re supporting our only public school – B.F. Day Elementary.
Quiz Night for Day raises funds for the B.F. Day Elementary School P.T.S.A., and the volunteer work these parents and staff do to aid, and enable, quality education for all of our children. Quiz Night is one way anyone in our community (not just school parents,) can contribute to B.F. Day.
‘The Trend Of The School’
According to Steve Albertson, current PTSA President, much of the value of Quiz Night is in the contribution it makes to building a supportive, united community around our school. The PTSA has identified a need to gather people together more often to create a cohesive community. This year, “our goal is having one event a month,” he explained, about movie nights, classes, and community meals, “to engage the parents.”
“I’m so enthusiastic about our school,” Albertson recently said, “as a parent, I like the trend of the school.” Albertson has lived in Fremont since just after he finished college in 1985. He and his wife are raising their three children in the area identified both as Upper Fremont and SoZo, although only one of their daughters currently attends B.F. Day. Another daughter attends Cascadia Elementary (currently located in the old Lincoln High School building,) where Albertson served their PTSA as Treasurer last year.
An obviously concerned, involved parent, Albertson sees the benefit reaped by our schools, and our kids, when they have a strong, active PTSA. Over the last few years, our PTSA has provided much needed continuity, as long-time principal Susan McCloskey retired and Katie Pearl took over in 2012. Then again as Pearl moved on (to lead a smaller school, during her first pregnancy,) and the more experienced Stan Jaskot came on-board in 2014.
According to Albertson, last year Jaskot had to spend a lot of time addressing staffing challenges. This year, Albertson has seen an improvement as the second-year principal and the PTSA start to work together on projects and actually directing the school.
In February, an important meeting took place with members of the PTSA, other concerned parents and the Principal. This was a discussion on the image B.F. Day projects to the City and prospective students. “It needs a rebranding,” observed Albertson. And everyone is being asked, from focus groups to discussions on the playground, about what parents see, and want to see, in our school.
This discussion includes the work of Principal Jaskot, and B.F. Day staff, on their development of a three-year plan for the school, including choosing an academic focus. B.F. Day has a strong arts program, but Adams Elementary uses that as its focus. So, one suggestion is for an arts-infused STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) focus, which would draw on both Fremont’s deep arts roots, and its newer neighbors in the ‘Silicon Canal’ (companies like Tableau, Google, Impinj, ProQuest, Adobe, GeekWire, etc.)
“Everything would still be taught,” Albertson explained about the academic focus, whatever is chosen, but it gives the school curriculum a bit more focus – and parents more reason to choose B.F. Day for their children.
‘The Most Caring School’
Currently, B.F. Day uses the appropriate handle of ‘The Family School,’ and has a well-deserved identity as a diverse North Seattle school that welcomes and encourages students of all economic, social and cultural backgrounds. In the past, the Seattle School District specifically directed new immigrants and homeless families to enroll their children here. Today, “we are a neighborhood school,” Albertson explained, “most of the kids live in the neighborhood.”
Still, Albertson estimated that 25% of current students require special education and/or English language assistance. Over 30% of students receive free or reduced lunch. Albertson has seen his daughter, without a thought, help her classmates who struggle to learn their subjects in a second language. He hears how she takes the experiences of her classmates, and friends, from backgrounds different from hers as a matter of course. “We have a legacy of that in the building,” Albertson explained, “of educating the most vulnerable in our society.”
“We’re the most caring school,” Albertson observed. B.F. Day has a noticeable lack of bullying among its students, or antagonism on the playground. “A lot of people are here for that,” he explained, as parents prefer to send their children to a school where they will meet, interact with, and become friends with children who might look or have lives different from their own.
District Destabilizing Our School?
As PTSA President, Albertson recently also had opportunity to meet, with other PTSA representatives, with Seattle Schools Board Member Rick Burke. Albertson enjoyed the chance to show the school to Burke, whom Albertson described as “very kind, and thoughtful.”
It is to be hoped that Burke gave careful, and thoughtful, consideration to concerns raised by the B.F. Day PTSA on enrollment. “B.F. Day has always been under-enrolled,” Albertson observed, “and the Seattle School District is proposing shrinking the school.”
Once again, the District has proposed shrinking the boundaries of B.F. Day, which would shrink the number of children eligible to attend. “It’s all a jigsaw puzzle,” Albertson said. The District suggests increasing the boundaries of neighboring schools, including West Woodland which must use portables to accommodate its students. “We have capacity,” Albertson said, “We can be a solution to capacity problems.”
More importantly, with lower enrollment, B.F. Day loses teachers. “It’s very destabilizing,” Albertson said, “It creates split classes,” and more empty spaces. Anyone who has entered our historic brick building knows its wooden halls and mosaicked stairways come alive when the children, and their energy, are present. “It makes our school stronger if we have more enrollment,” Albertson observed, “if we have over 300 students,” building capacity far exceeds that number, “we get a vice-principal.”
Albertson couldn’t say why the District keeps suggesting shrinking our boundaries. He conjectured that, “B.F. Day has not been a loud presence. We’re small, and not as organized.” He did agree that making less use of the designated landmark building makes little sense when considering it sits on land specifically donated to Seattle for use as a school. Benjamin Franklin and Frances Day donated the property (including the Upper Playfield land used by Seattle Parks & Recreation,) and it cannot be used for any other purpose.
Please, Help Our School
In addition to all of this, the PTSA supports – financially and with its volunteers – music and art curriculum at B.F. Day along with a new, parent-led after school educational program.
What they try to limit is the time and energy volunteers must give to raising money, and organizing auctions. Right now, the PTSA raises its much needed funds through the Walk-N-Roll student fundraiser coming this spring, and the Direct Drive in the fall.
“It is great to have money being raised,” Albertson observed about Quiz Night, “Carol has taken this on herself.” Quiz Night, along with donations given by our community through the B.F. Day PTSA website, help fund programs. Yet, Albertson regards Quiz Night as an important part of building community awareness for our school, and the needs of its students.
So, consider joining in on an evening of delicious tacos, and challenging trivia, with parents and other concerned community members, at the annual Quiz Night for Day on March 1st at Pecado Bueno. Sign-up your team today on the Quiz Night Word Press page.
Or, if Quiz Night is not your thing – think about giving to our school, with money to the PTSA, or time to raising awareness of our need for more enrollment and student strength at B.F. Day. Check the B.F. Day website for donations. Also, on Saturday, February 27th, from 3p – 5p, meet with School Board Member Burke at the Fremont Branch Library to talk about our school.
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- A New Principal For B.F. Day, & Fremont
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- Act Now To Help B.F. Day Grow
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©2016 Kirby Laney. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.